Life Insurance Awareness Month

October is life insurance awareness month. Many people do not realize the importance of a life insurance policy unti it is too late. If agents would take more time to stress the importance of life insurance, more families would be protected in the event of a tragedy due to loss of life.

I work for an insurance company and I do realize how important life insurance is. I have seen too many families broken not only by grief from the loss of a loved one, but also financially. Just recently we had a married couple that were in their early fifties and very much in love. It was evident that they were the best of friends. Our office had spoken to them on several occasions about how important it is to have some coverage on each spouse. It is smarter to have a significant amount of coverage on the main income earner in the household in the event that they would die leaving the other spouse with costs of burial and the loss of income.

A few months ago the husband passed away unexpectadley as they were sitting and watching a football game on TV. Our insured came in and said that she wished that she had listened. Now she was struggling to pay the burial costs and find a way to manage the household bills. Too often this is the scenario that we see over and over. But, there are a few cases where our insureds have taken life policies and were very greatful to have had them when a tragedy occured. A client of ours died yesterday and he had a 50K life policy. His wife will now be able to pay for his burial expenses and pay their home off. Her husband was only 46.

Life is unexpected, but we have the ability to make choices that will better prepare us for the future. I encourage you to learn more about life insurance and all of the programs that are available. Some policies even earn a cash value that can be surrendered at any point. These type of policies are called whole life policies. I have taken a whole life policy out on my son who is now three and by the time he is 18 the policy will have some cash value that I can surrender to use for whatever I choose. I may use this for some college expenses or as a wedding gift later in his life. The policy will be there if we need it. Even if we don't it will earn interest and gain cash value so we can use it for something we may need in the future.